TRAVELS IN THE CALIFORNIA S. 
30S> 
with the precious metals. There is a high probability that this 
may be found the case ; for a mine called San Antonio, near 
La Paz, which has been wrought somewhat, is said to be rich. 
In addition to the products of this mine and the pearls, there 
is a limited export of dates, wines, grapes, soap, figs, mazcal, 
spirits, salt from a lake on the island Del Carmine, and a 
few goat and beeves’ hides. 
Since the landing of the excellent old Padre Salva Tierra, 
with his six soldiers and three Indians, at Loretto in the 
year 1697, a great change has taken place in the inhabitants 
of this territory. It was then peopled by about twenty thou¬ 
sand Indians, who passed whole days stretched upon their 
bellies on the sand. And when pressed with hunger they 
flew to the chase or the sea, like wild beasts, merely to satisfy 
the cravings of appetite, and then rolled themselves upon the 
sand again till aroused to action bv a similar cause. 
These degraded beings the Jesuits brought into the Catholic 
church, taught the arts of civilized life, and when nature fail¬ 
ed, buried them. The intercourse of these savages with the 
soldiers, and with the few colonists and their negro slaves, 
who from time to time settled there, produced a mixed race, 
which, by the greater care taken of their persons, and by the 
relief from labor derived from the industry of the neophytes 
at the Missions, have increased in numbers, while their brutal 
and filthy Indian relatives, with better constitutions, have de¬ 
creased ; so that the present population of Lower California is 
almost entirely composed of mongrel breeds of Indians, 
whites, and negroes. In 1836 they amounted to about four 
thousand. But since then the small-pox and another disease, 
which had swept away the Indians, has made some havoc also 
among this mixed race. Loretto, the seat of government, 
formerly contained two thousand people, whose number is 
now reduced to about two hundred and fifty. 
La Paz, situated on the bay of La Paz, farther south, 
together with the mining village of San Antonio, contains 
about two thousand descendants of American and European 
